


You're An Animal, Too

by MoreThanSlightly (cadignan)



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alien Biology, Cuddling & Snuggling, Galra Keith (Voltron), M/M, Purring Keith (Voltron), Sharing a Bed, Sleep
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-20
Updated: 2018-08-20
Packaged: 2019-06-30 08:18:55
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,687
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15747864
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cadignan/pseuds/MoreThanSlightly
Summary: There’s a sound Shiro has never heard the wolf make before, something like a very deep cat’s purr. Huh. Shiro drifts off listening to it.(Shiro can't sleep. Kosmo helps.)





	You're An Animal, Too

**Author's Note:**

> This little fic owes its inspiration to [this gorgeous, adorable fan comic](http://houseofpaincakes.tumblr.com/post/176931433411/good-doggo-knows-where-everybody-oughta-be) by houseofpaincakes.

Shiro doesn’t sleep well. A nasty leftover side effect of his time in the Galra prison. All he’d wanted to do when his consciousness was trapped in the Black Lion was go to sleep, turn off for one second, and there was no way. And now he has a body that he could, conceivably, rest for a few hours a night, but he can’t. He needs sleep. He deserves rest. They saved Earth. There are no imminent threats (try telling his brain  _that_ ). It doesn’t matter.

He dreads nightfall. He trudges off to bed every night, knowing he’ll spend hours lying awake with his thoughts. It’s a new kind of prison.

Naturally, the one night he’s finally almost there, so close to drifting off, Kosmo materializes in his bed and wakes him all the way up.

“Kosmo? Is Keith okay? Is something wrong?”

The wolf snuggles down into his bed and goes to sleep, which he takes as a no. Okay. Shiro breathes in deep until his heart slows. The wolf is massive and warm. Even though Kosmo’s taking up most of the space in his already-small bed, he finds he doesn’t mind. It’s nice not to be alone.

He was alone for a long time. Trapped in the dark where no one knew he existed. Maybe it’s not just hypervigilance from his time with the Galra fucking up his sleep.

Anyway, it’s nice to be touched, even by an animal that’s hogging all the blankets. Shiro closes his eyes and, eventually, goes to sleep.

Kosmo comes back the next night, and the night after that. Apparently he likes Shiro’s bed. When he follows Shiro to the kitchen that morning, they run into Keith.

“Hey. Morning.”

Keith barely avoids splashing coffee onto the counter. He rights the thermos, then, a second later, pulls out a mug for Shiro and pours again. “Has Kosmo been sleeping with you? I mean, uh, in your bed.”

Shiro opts to ignore the phrasing. They don’t have to talk about that. “Yeah. I hope that’s okay?”

“Of course! As long as you don’t mind.” Keith crouches down to let the wolf nuzzle his face. “He takes up a lot of room. And he has gross space wolf breath.”

This last sentence is addressed to Kosmo in a cute, talking-to-animals voice that Shiro has never heard Keith use, and he’s unaccountably charmed by it. He picks up the mug of coffee so he has something to hide behind, since he can’t control his face. He clears his throat and says carefully, “I don’t mind.”

“Yeah, me neither. I’m glad you’re okay with it. Since I can’t really stop him from going where he wants, you know?”

Shiro smiles into his coffee again. Keith  _would_  adopt the universe’s most willful and independent pet. He refrains from making any comparisons out loud.

“Who’s a good space wolf? You are!” Keith pads to the fridge and gets out a container of homemade space wolf food. Shiro has no idea what Kosmo eats, but the wolf is clearly excited by whatever Keith is offering him. It’s a sweet little scene. There’s not a lot of cozy domesticity in the void of space—or here in the post-war wreckage of planet Earth—but somehow Keith found himself a family.

Shiro’s not sure if what he’s feeling is tenderness or envy or both.

That night, Kosmo’s not there when Shiro gets into bed. He’s a little disappointed, but there’s nothing for it but to close his eyes and lie still. He misses the warmth and the companionship, but like Keith said, Kosmo goes where he wants.

The wolf shows up half an hour later, presses the whole length of its furry body along his back, and Shiro feels all the tightness in his muscles release. He’s dimly aware, hours later, of the wolf vanishing, but by that point he’s sleepy enough to find his way back to unconsciousness within minutes.

Funny how easily he got accustomed to a space wolf teleporting in and out of his bed. Every other little sound or movement jolts him awake, but he only associates Kosmo with being safe and warm and sleepy. Life has been so much better with the addition of a few solid hours of sleep every night, and he has Kosmo to thank.

Sometime in the middle of the next night, Kosmo appears and snuggles against Shiro’s chest so aggressively that Shiro nearly gets backed out of his own bed. "Kosmo," he sighs, half-asleep, running a hand through the wolf’s blue-and-black fur. "Chill out."

Kosmo seems to accept that. He goes still as Shiro pets him, running his hand through a patch of fur that feels smoother than the wolf’s coarse, blue-grey ruff. There’s a sound Shiro has never heard the wolf make before, something like a very deep cat’s purr. Huh. Shiro drifts off listening to it.

When he wakes up, Kosmo’s gone, and his left arm is stretched across the empty space where the wolf used to be. More importantly, his fingers are threaded through Keith’s hair.

Keith is still asleep.

Shiro has twenty thoughts at once about how he ought to react, but his brain is slower than his hand. His fingers are already experimentally spreading out, combing through Keith’s hair and stroking his scalp.

Keith purrs.

The sound is Keith. _Keith is making the sound_.

Shiro presses his lips together, as if not smiling or laughing will keep his delight in check somehow. Oh God. He’d thought it was cute when Keith talked to Kosmo in the kitchen, but this is a million times worse and better all at once. Is this a Galra thing? Does Keith know he does this? Will he be embarrassed if Shiro mentions it? Come to think of it, waking up in bed together thanks to Kosmo is a little bit delicate. Shiro had been worried about that before Keith distracted him by purring.

Shiro disentangles his hand, thankful that they’re both at least partially clothed. Keith’s eyes blink open. “Shiro?”

“Hey. Kosmo brought you here.”

"Shit. Sorry. I didn’t—he shouldn’t have—”

“It’s okay. I don’t mind. I think he wanted to be with both of us. He’s a problem-solver.” Shiro smiles. Kosmo was clever enough to figure out that he had to transport Keith and not Shiro, who would definitely have woken up during the trip and felt obligated to go back to his own bed.

Keith nods to himself. “Okay. That’s good that you don’t mind. I’m gonna... go.” He bounds out of bed and goes to the door. Before he opens it, he turns back and says, slightly abashed, “This is probably gonna happen again.”

Despite getting several hours of good sleep, Shiro wanders through the day in a dream state. He can’t stop thinking about the sound. He should have mentioned it to Keith this morning. Can Keith make that sound when he’s awake? Is it involuntary? If Shiro brushes up against him during a training exercise, will he purr?

Then his brain occupies itself with other scenarios in which he could make Keith purr. Eight different people ask him if he’s alright. Sam Holt suggests lying down. Shiro flushes dull pink at the prospect. Lying down means returning to the site of the incident.

“I’m going for a walk,” he announces, and then a second later, “Coran, if you have a moment, can we talk?”

“Yes, of course.” Coran hurries out the door after him.

“I have a question about alien biology, and you’re the only one I can think to ask who might know the answer,” Shiro says. “Do Galra... purr?”

“I’m sorry. I’m not familiar with all this Earth slang. What do you mean ‘purr’?”

“It’s an animal noise. Sort of a deep, throaty—” Shiro  _really_  has to choose different words for this. “Um, a low, continuous vibration.” He gives his best imitation. “On Earth, some cats make it—usually to signal contentment or relaxation. Sometimes when you... caress them, they…” Shiro gestures helplessly, wishing he hadn’t gone down this path. His face is hot. Coran has to know there’s only one Galra in their circle of acquaintances that Shiro might be  _caressing_.

“Well, I haven’t been in the presence of very many contented or relaxed Galra,” Coran says, stroking the end of his moustache. He seems absorbed in the question. That, or he has the grace not to look at Shiro in this moment. “But yes, there is a rumor that they make a sound like that in intimate moments. Can’t replicate it myself, but I’d say it’s quite similar to the sound you described, with much the same meaning. But as I said, I’ve never seen or heard any evidence. What makes you ask?”

“Oh, um... nothing. Just... a memory. Wondering what it meant.”

“Well, sorry I wasn’t of more use,” Coran says cheerfully, turning to leave. When he catches Shiro’s eye, there’s a spark of mischief in his. “Seems like the sort of question you’ll have to answer for yourself!”

Right. Shiro tries to focus on rebuilding the base for the rest of the afternoon.

That night, he and Keith go to bed in their separate rooms and, true to Keith’s prediction, Kosmo brings them together. The transfer wakes Keith up, and he says, groggy with sleep, “Sorry. I’ll leave.”

Shiro reaches a hand out. Kosmo’s between them and he can’t really see Keith, but his hand lands on bare skin. He hopes it’s Keith’s arm. Keith runs shockingly hot. Maybe another biological difference. Shiro shouldn’t think about that. “Stay. I don’t mind, and Kosmo’s only going to bring you back here if you leave.”

“You sure?”

“Yeah.” And then, because it’s dark enough that they can’t see each other, and maybe Keith isn’t awake enough to think about it, Shiro risks saying something else. “It’s nice to have company. I don’t sleep well when I’m alone.”

“Okay,” Keith says through a yawn, and then falls asleep infuriatingly fast.

The next night, Keith shows up at his door in a t-shirt and boxers with a pillow tucked under his arm. The wolf is nowhere in sight. Keith shrugs. “Thought I’d save Kosmo the trouble.”

“Oh. Sure.” Shiro opens the door and somehow, without really discussing it, he and Keith get into bed together, occupying opposite sides of the mattress. He turns out the light.

Shiro’s animal brain doesn’t have the same instinctive response to Keith’s presence. With Kosmo, there’s something inherently soothing. The wolf’s presence is permission to rest. If something happened, Kosmo would wake him, so it’s okay to fall asleep.

Shiro doesn’t feel unsafe around Keith. He ought to be able to go to sleep with Keith in his bed. They’ve ended up in bed together two nights in a row now. It should be almost as much of a habit as sleeping next to Kosmo.

But it’s not. He can’t figure out why he reacts so differently to Keith and Kosmo.

_Because you don’t want to fuck the wolf_ , his brain supplies, and even though it’s dark and no one’s watching, Shiro smothers his face in his pillow so he can pretend he never had that thought.

“Is it the touching?” Keith asks, and Shiro freezes like Keith can read his mind. But no. It’s just that they’ve been lying here for an hour and Shiro has done nothing but toss and turn. Now he’s keeping Keith awake too.

When Keith turns to look at him through the dark, his eyes glow. Another little reminder that he’s not entirely human. “I mean, with Kosmo. Is that what helps you sleep?”

Shiro relaxes a fraction. “Yeah, I think it’s partly that. I was... alone for a long time.”  _When I was dead_. “Having that physical reminder that I’m not alone, that I’m alive and I can be touched, that helps.”

Without a word, Keith moves across the bed to close the space between them, settling with his back against Shiro’s chest. Shiro wants to protest, especially because there’s no way he won’t get hard like this. He thought they were talking about  _Kosmo_  touching him. He never would have said that stuff out loud if he’d known Keith was taking it as a request.

“You don’t have to do this for me,” Shiro says softly.

There’s no response. Keith is asleep. How the fuck does he do that? Is that a Galra thing too?

Shiro sighs, drapes an arm over Keith’s waist, and is pleasantly surprised when Keith purrs. In this position, he can feel the vibration against his chest. Eventually, Shiro falls asleep, too.

He wakes up with Keith plastered to his front and Kosmo nestled against his back. He’s sticky with sweat, but surprisingly well-rested considering how little space there is in his bed. He’s happy.

His dick is pressed between his body and Keith’s ass. Normally he’d valiantly ignore it, but Keith is sleepily rubbing up against him. And purring.

And—Shiro feels guilty for checking—also hard.

“Keith.”

“Mm.”

“Did you know you purr, Keith?”

“What,” Keith says sleepily, and then Shiro moves his hips in a slow, lazy thrust and Keith emits a long, satisfied vibration from somewhere deep in his throat. He blinks, his eyes now wide open. “No.” A swallow. “I didn’t know that.”

“I like it,” Shiro says. He doesn’t want Keith to be embarrassed. He wants Keith to keep doing it. Possibly forever. “Do you think you can do it again for me?”

“I don’t know how,” Keith says, but it happens again when Shiro trails a hand down his chest and over the tented front of his boxers. Keith takes a breath. “Holy shit.”

“Is this okay?” Shiro asks. Maybe he’s being too enthusiastic. “If it’s freaking you out—”

“Kosmo,” Keith says, half-strangled. “Go visit a friend, okay?”

The wolf vanishes. Shiro kisses Keith’s hair and smiles against it. “Preserving Kosmo’s innocence?”

“Preserving us from getting drooled on,” Keith says. “I’m pretty sure animals know about sex.”

“Oh, is that what we’re doing?” Shiro asks with false guile. He thrusts again, and Keith’s whole body shudders with a sustained vibration. “Fuck, that’s hot. Is it weird that I think it’s hot?”

Keith touches his throat and his sternum as if his body will provide some answers. “It’s weird as hell, discovering you’re an alien late in life. But I’m glad you like the purring, since I don’t seem to have any control over it, and I guess it’s gonna happen every time you touch me. And it, uh, feels really good. In case you couldn’t tell.”

“Sometimes you do it while you’re asleep,” Shiro admits.

“I—“ Keith starts, and that’s when they discover Keith can’t purr and talk at the same time. Shiro strips them both of their clothes, flips Keith around so they’re facing each other, and makes sure Keith can’t get a word in for the next half-hour. When he finally lets go of Keith’s cock, Keith is wrung out and breathing hard. Breathless and bright-eyed, he says, “I hate you. And I love you. But I kind of ha—”

Shiro kisses him and massages his scalp, shuddering with silent laughter while Keith purrs helplessly. “I love you too. I’m gonna win every argument this way. Can you imagine next time we’re meeting with the team—”

“I will fucking end you, Takashi Shirogane.”

“Shh, I would never,” Shiro says, squeezing him. “But it does give me a lot of pleasure, knowing I can reduce the single most badass person in the universe to a squirming, quivering, speechless mess in private.”

“Funny,” Keith says. “I could say the same thing.” And then he dips his head between Shiro’s legs to demonstrate. He might not be able to purr and talk, but he can purr and use his tongue just fine. Shiro can’t purr, but Keith proves capable of eliciting a whole range of noises out of him.

Afterward, they shower and clean up and go about their days, and for the first time in a long time, Shiro finds himself looking forward to going back to bed.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm on [tumblr](http://morethanslightly.tumblr.com).


End file.
